PAX East Eyes-On: Portal 2 - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 15 March 2011 / 4,274 Views
On Saturday of PAX East 2011, I had an appointment with Valve to see their Portal 2 demo. It was only a video of certain aspects of the game, but I couldn’t be any more ready for the finished product. Instead of showing the cooperative gameplay that has been the bulk of media coverage to this point, Valve showed off the single player.
The beginning of the demo showed you as Chell waking up from a very long sleep period. Wheatley, a personality cube voiced by comedian Stephen Merchant, tries to save you from suffering the same fate as the rest of the Aperture Science facility. You soon see a completely decomposing facility. Thousands of rooms such as the one you are in seem to be destroyed and empty, and Wheatley wants to save at least one of his subjects. The introduction ends before any actual gameplay and goes into clips from the upcoming product.
Valve also revealed Cave Johnson, the CEO of Aperture Science, voiced by J.K. Simmons. I was told by a developer that Cave Johnson will play a similar role to GLaDOS in the first game. Through pre-recorded files, Cave Johnson will narrate parts of the game.
Other aspects of Portal 2 shown were the gels that the player could control. They showed an orange gel called the Propulsion Gel that increases the player's speed and the blue Repulsion Gel that causes Chell to bounce very high.
I spoke to a developer after the demonstration and he shed some light on the gels. Essentially, Portal was a monochromatic game that was very close ended; there was usually one way to finish a puzzle and that is how you had to do it. Portal 2 is a lot more of an open experience with huge environments and decisions for the character to make. The player can paint on the different gels around the world to manipulate it, as well as add bright color to the usually dark facilities.
The game looks great visually and the demonstration was hilarious. Portal 2 seems like it will be a very funny experience with great gameplay. I cannot wait to play it when it comes out on April 18.
